What the U.S. Does Not Want to Know About Abbas

Abbas's autocratic rule and the frustration of many Palestinians do not seem to bother Kerry. The U.S. seems to want to bring Abbas to the negotiating table with Israel at any price. Kerry seems to be seeking to cut a deal with just one person -- who does not even have the backing of his people.

As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pursues his efforts to revive the peace process in the Middle East, Palestinian officials in the West Bank are complaining that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is keeping them in the dark and refusing to brief them about his plans.

For these officials, Abbas's autocracy has turned the Palestinian Authority into a one-man show called Mahmoud Abbas.

President Abbas has become the president of everything related to the Palestinians and the Palestinian cause, complained Sufyan Abu Zayda, a senior representative of Abbas's Fatah faction. He is the head of the PLO, President of Palestine, President of the Palestinian Authority, head of Fatah, and commander of the Palestinian Authority security forces.

Moreover, in the absence of a functioning Palestinian parliament, Abbas has taken it upon himself to issue his own laws.

The Palestinian parliament, known as the Palestinian Legislative Council, has been paralyzed ever since Hamas drove Abbas's Palestinian Authority out of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Abbas sometimes meets with members of the PLO Executive Committee and the Fatah Central Committee to discuss latest developments surrounding the Palestinian issue.

But these two bodies are dominated by unelected Abbas loyalists, including many old-guard leaders whose only concern is to continue receiving monthly funds from the Palestinian Authority leadership so they can rent offices and hire several aides and secretaries, as well as drivers and bodyguards.

Then there is the Palestinian government in the West Bank, whose prime minister and ministers have no say in political matters.

Some Palestinians are also complaining that Abbas does not consult with the PLO's Negotiations Department, which is in charge of the peace talks with Israel.

Abu Zayda and other Palestinian officials say that Abbas's autocratic regime reminds them of the days when Yasser Arafat ran the Palestinian Authority as his private fiefdom.

No one dreamed that we would reach a situation where all the powers and top positions would be concentrated in the hands of one man, said Abu Zayda. Today, Abbas even has more powers than Arafat.

Abbas, according to Abu Zayda, has also appointed himself as the chief judge and prosecutor, making a mockery of the Palestinian judicial system.

Take, for example, the case of Ghazi Jabali, the former commissioner-general of the Palestinian Authority police force.

For many years, Jabali was wanted by the Palestinian Authority for corruption and theft. After fleeing to Jordan, the Palestinian Authority requested Interpol's help in the arrest of Jabali.

A few weeks ago, Palestinians were surprised to see Jabali staying at a luxurious hotel in Ramallah. It transpired that Jabali was able to return to the West Bank after receiving a written document from Abbas clearing him of any wrongdoing.

Abbas is surrounded by three or four people who are making important decisions on behalf of all Palestinians, noted another Palestinian official in the West Bank. These are the only people he consults with. Most PLO and Fatah leaders have no idea about Abbas's strategy.

The growing resentment about Abbas's autocratic regime and refusal to share powers and plans with other Palestinians cast doubt on his ability to win the support of a majority of Palestinians for resuming peace talks, let alone signing a peace treaty with Israel.

Abbas's autocratic rule and the frustration of many Palestinians do not seem to bother Kerry.

The U.S. seems to want to bring Abbas to the negotiating table with Israel at any price.

Kerry seems to be seeking to cut a deal with just one person -- who does not even have the backing of his people.

Unlike Kerry, Abbas is fully aware of the increased criticism at home -- and why Abbas is now telling his people that if and when he resumes peace talks with Israel, it will be only because the U.S. has exerted immense pressure on him.

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9 Reader Comments

Bart Benschop • Jul 9, 2013 at 01:57

Dear sir,

Under Al Sharia, which is the law under which the PLO operates, you only have one absolute ruler. There is no need for this ruler to be liked by his subjects. The PLO has made it abundantly clear that it refuses to deal with Jews. For Mr. Abbas to want the release of Muslim Jihadi prisoners from Israeli jails as a prerequisite is flawed. Why would Israel want to enhance the PLO Jihadi capability?

Kind regards,

Bart benschop

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Amonseyman • Jul 1, 2013 at 23:22

Who does Abbas lead? Not Gaza, not the so-called Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, etc. Which of these peoples will honor any agreement reached by Abbas? It's obvious that the PA is a red herring for the Arab Muslim world, to continue it's war against Israel in any way they can get away with.

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Lori Lowenthal Marcus • Jun 30, 2013 at 21:47

And why are his police force(s) loyal to him? That is the one part that doesn't make sense. Of course Kerry and every other Western diplomat wants to get back on the peace train/gravy train. Forcing concessions from anyone but Israel, and requiring others to face the unpleasant truth that there is no peace about to descend on the Middle East anytime soon, are both simply too hard, especially when they get so much positive reinforcement for this farce from everyone on the planet except for the people who will have to live with the consequences. But why do the Arab Palestinian people put up with the farce? And why does he have so many willing to go along with his megalomania? Maybe we should start calling his followers the Abbastinians.

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Ethan P. Lori Lowenthal Marcus • Jul 1, 2013 at 13:23

Lori; you know the real reason as well as I: Anti-Semitism. Even a self-serving PCer like Thomas Friedman understands that, and has publicly said so.

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Lori Lowenthal Marcus Ethan P. • Jul 1, 2013 at 13:52

I asked (1) why the Arab Palestinians do not stage their own "Arab Spring" and (2) why Abbas's police forces are so loyal to him. Anti-Semitism, while I agree is the major reason why so many people reflexively support the Arab Palestinians and not Israel, is not an answer to the questions I actually posed.

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Ethan P. Lori Lowenthal Marcus • Jul 2, 2013 at 14:26

Lori; anti-Semitism is a disease of the soul. As long as there is an 'other' to hate, there is distraction from real problems. Put another way, the racial bigotry of the "Jim Crow" South was as much about surpressing the poor whites as oppressing blacks. No matter how impoverished, a poor white could feel superior to any black. It's the same thing with the Palestinians. No matter how oppressed by their kleptocratc leaders, there are always Jews to blame. Every Muslim is taught from the craddle that they are better than the 'sub-human' Jew, that all his problems are due to the Jews. And they've been taught this for nearly 1,400 years. And the sad truth is that with that hate, you can get 'us' to do anything to 'them'. That kind of blame seems to have stopped working in Egypt and Syria - at least for now.

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Charles • Jun 30, 2013 at 15:52

Striving for the appearance of evenhandedness seems to trump every other consideration with Foggy Bottom on Israel's relation with the Palestinians - it is going to provoke a violent and bloody overthrow, and the US will have no one to blame but itself for fostering and nurturing the conditions that facilitate that.

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Phillip Pasmanick • Jun 30, 2013 at 09:16

The Israeli government has nothing to fear. There will never be an agreement I don't think. Obama has not learned anything from the past Democratic administration. Clinton once said that Arafat did not make good on even the simplest of promises. And so we have seen with Abbas, i.e. the Oslo Accords, and unilateral appeals to the UN.

The Arab leadership will say anything to maintain the status quo of confrontation. It's the only way they can continue skimming millions to maintain their lifestyle and take care of family and friends for future generations. At the expense of those they've sworn an oath to represent, the current leadership learned the ways of Arafat. Billions can be stolen for personal use, as long as the people feel they're being abused by the Jews with the support of the Crusaders.

They will continue to live in squalor as long as they're inspired to fulfill the Qur'an's teaching of battle. They will always war... even among themselves, if Jews are not available. The status quo of confrontation, because of 'education' in the school, home, and mosque, along with governmental incitement, has guaranteed another generation of supporters for the morally bankrupt and unbelievably corrupt leadership.

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Ethan P. • Jun 29, 2013 at 23:28

The US has a long tradition of backing the wrong horse, strongmen who were often more the enemy than a friend. Mubarak comes quickly to mind. Kerry is merely making the same mistakes that seem to be ingrained into the self-serving bureaucrats that staff the State Department in every administration.

Dr. Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani physician who helped the U.S. locate Osama bin Laden, has been in jail in Pakistan since he was arrested days after the raid on bin Laden's compound in 2011. In 2013, he was granted a retrial, with a new charge that appears politically motivated: charged with murder in regard to the death, eight years earlier, of a patient he had treated. Afridi has gone on a hunger strike protest his unspeakable prison conditions -- including torture. His former lawyer, Samiullah Khan Afridi, was murdered by the Taliban in March 2015. The Obama Administration appears to have abandoned him.